ACADEMIA

Platform Computing today announced the release of Platform LSF for V5 PLM, the first product to grid enable Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). As PLM expands to encompass all of a business' processes, it becomes increasingly important for the IT infrastructure to effectively manage compute intensive operations. The automation of all CAD, CAE, CAM and PDM operations to form a single multidisciplinary design optimization loop will greatly streamline production and require thousands of CPUs to manage this new aggregate of operations. Platform LSF for V5 PLM will drive resource optimization and address the computing infrastructure challenges for customers in the aerospace and automotive industries, resulting in reduced costs. To answer these challenges, Platform has partnered with Dassault Systemes (DS) to schedule batch workloads for a range of PLM applications within DS' V5 PLM environment across a distributed, virtualized IT environment. The industry's most powerful and comprehensive family of grid-enabled solutions, Platform LSF is anchored by Platform Enterprise Grid Orchestrator (EGO), which manages and optimizes enterprise IT environments delivering higher efficiency, faster time to business results, dramatically reduced cost of computing, and guaranteed service execution. Active in the CAE market since 1992, Platform saw the opportunity to better serve customers by expanding its offerings beyond CAE products into the full PLM market. "We are pleased to see Platform release their V5 PLM integration in less than a year," said Alain Nicolas, Director, PLM SOA system of Dassault Systemes. "Platform's integration of LSF benefits our customers who are deploying V5 PLM by giving them the ability to bring out the full capabilities of both their hardware and software assets." Platform and DS saw the market gap for this type of solution after developing custom integrations of LSF and V5 PLM for customers in the automotive industry, gaining insight and an understanding of the business needs of these clients. The resulting data and feedback was then used to tailor Platform LSF for V5 PLM into a fully-fledged product, configured to be of maximum utility to clients of both Platform and DS. "By maintaining a close relationship with both our customers and our partners, Platform LSF for V5 PLM has developed as a unique product that addresses the needs of the industrial manufacturing market today and in the future," said Joe Cieslak, Industry Manager for Industrial Manufacturing of Platform Computing. "Combining customer focus with technology leadership means we can bring solutions to market that are instrumental in transforming business and translating the potential of grid into reality." For information on Platform LSF please visit its Web site.